>> mitchell: tonight, winter in october. a powerful storm barrels through the northeast, dumping up tie foot of snow in some places. elaine quijano is on snow patrol. a suicide bomber kills at least a dozen americans in afghanistan with the taliban claiming responsibility. mandy clark in kabul has the latest. sky-high tuition at public colleges is forcing students to scale back their plans. ben tracy looks at the impact in california. and the comeback cardinals cap their miracle season with their 11th world series championship. mark strassmann talks to the series mvp, and his mom. captioning sponsored by cbs

this is the "cbs evening news" with russ mitchell. l: aitchell: and good evening. aay, the calendar may say that it's still only october, but up middle the east coast today, y ac a look outside your window, ningit might convince you that it is the middle of winter. trav an early snowstorm is blasting out in across the region this itning, downing power lines, and snarling air and ground travel for thousands. noine quijano has been out in the thick of it. >> reporter: fall fell away quickly today in the northeast. in its place: an unwelcome, storming dose of winter. t> this is crazy. this is absolutely crazy. and it's so wet. it's just-- and it's not stopping. >> reporter: 12 states at one point were under a winter storm warning, stretching from west torm nia all the way to maine. >> this is a once-in-a-50-year rope storm event. s's not an incredibly strong storm, but it's producing snows you would typically see heading wn towards december and early january. >> reporter: the heavy snow also

eroke tree limbs, knocking out electricity to about two million theomers across the mid- atlantic. in new jersey, the governor declared a state of emergency. in new york, central park is now oseded because of falling tree limbs. li iful, looks beautiful, but the trees are definitely coming thwn, either side of the road coming down all down all the .ime. >> reporter: more than an inch of snow fell in central park, making it the snowiest october ever recorded. >> we're new yorkers. this is not normal. it's very cold. s> reporter: in boston and other es ies in the storm's path, the eather delayed and canceled flights. in pittsburgh, snowy roads made adsving treacherous, causing g treacherccidents. >> the weather came down pretty quick this morning, and the-- they were on top of it the best they could. the biggest problem is people did not want to slow down. >> reporter: in lower manhattan, the occupy wall street protesters huddle inside snow-covered tents ered tenled up for warmth. e> we need wool coats.

we need wool hats. we need insulated gloves, and we need insulated boots. >> reporter: the storm is expected to get worse as it travels north with more than six inches of snowfall expected in parts of massachusetts and connecticut tonight. elaine quijano, cbs news, new birk. e> mitchell: for more on the big pre-winter storm and what we on expect, let's go to jeff berardelli in our miami station isor. ifyiight now the storm is wntensifying right along the f int and it's moving north east. places like new york city will see snow on and off straight through midnight or so and the now will taper off in boston probably in the early morning rears. along the coast we will see unprecedented snowfall totals for this time of year, 2-4 inches inland areas. away from the coast, probably 6- 12 inches of the heaviest, wettest snow that you can really 'regine, and, therefore, we're

talk, a lot of power outages, a lot of tree limbs down on the road. >> mitchell: you're calling this unprecedented. a lot of people mere are calling re whacky. try to explain how this can happen on october 29th. >> reporter: everything has to line up. lo becathing has to come together terfectly. awing inhow you this graphic right here. first of all, we have the remnants of hurricane rina. all this tropical moisture feeding northward into this very strong and intensifying area of low pressure. at the same time, because it's intensifying so quickly, it's wet drawing in cold air like a magnet, and this combination of miami.re and cold air and all always, thy really energizing the atmosphere, and causing really an unprecedented situation in parts of the >> m northeast, and we are talking snowfall that we just never see this time, russ.

>> mitchell: okay, jeff berardelli, of wfor in miami. as always, thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> mitchell: overseas now, a suicide car bomber attacked a nato bus in afghanistan today. initial reports said at least a dozen american soldiers and civilian contractors were killed. the attack took place on a highway in kabul where mandy clark has the latest tonight. >> reporter: in kabul's morning rush hour, a car packed with over 1500 pounds of explosives rammed an armored bus carrying american troops and civilians, and burst into flames. helicopters descended to airlift casualties to medical help. "it was a huge blast," this eyewitness said. "i went closer to the convoy and saw several americans on fire." the taliban claimed responsibility, vowing to continue their attacks on nato troops until all foreign forces leave afghanistan. overall, violence was at its worst since the start of the war ten years ago, including an uptick in attacks on civilians and an exodus of refugees to neighboring countries. nearly two million now live in pakistan and they're staying away. the u.n. today reported a 60% drop in afghan refugees coming

home this year over last. the attack in kabul will do nothing to ease their worry. nor will the attacks everywhere. today, in the south, an afghan army officer turned his weapon on nato troops, killing three australian soldiers and an afghan translator and in eastern afghanistan, a female suicide bomber died trying to attack a local government office. mandy clark, cbs news, kabul. >> mitchell: later, the royal change that could mean more queens in britain's future. and how the st. louis cardinals came to rule the roost at the world series. those stories and more when the "cbs evening news" continues.

>> mitchell: there was very bad news for college students this week. the college board reported that

tuition and fees at public four- year colleges now average $8,244 a year, up 8.3% from last year. and as ben tracy tells us, students in california are getting a particularly tough lesson in college economics. >> i scheduled a couple of movers to come in. >> reporter: connie castelan's biggest fear is debt. by day, she works a full-time job so at night she can afford to go to college without massive loans. >> it's just an incredible weight on my shoulders that i just thought i couldn't handle it. >> reporter: when her tuition at california state north ridge, a public school, hit $8,000 this fall she had to drop out and enroll at this community college. she now pays $1,000. >> honestly, when i see tuition go up, fees go up-- even books went up-- it shows the government, the legislators they don't really care about students. >> reporter: on average, tuition and fees at california's four- year public universities are up

a whopping 21% this year. why? california's ongoing budget crunch is squeezing higher education hard. in the past four years, state lawmakers have cut more than $1.5 billion from the state's four-year universities. in 2010, california spent more on prisons than higher education. >> i think the priorities are all upside down. >> reporter: mark yudof is president of the u.c. system. >> california has been dis- investing in higher education. we spend a lot more on prisons than we spend on the universities. we're apparently more devoted to them than to our young people. >> reporter: so the young people pay more. at u.c.l.a., once considered a low-cost option, tuition and fees now top $12,000, nearly double what it was just five years ago. of course, most students don't pay that much. financial aid covers part of the bill, but as tuition keeps going up and more students need aid, there's less of it to go around. joelle gamble using photocopied books to cut costs.

the tuition hike at u.c.l.a. this fall almost forced her to drop out. >> oh, you know, just pay more, pay more, but the reason why some of you us are here is because we can't pay more and this was an affordable, high- quality option for us. >> reporter: these students will likely be paying even more. the state may cut another $100 million next year. ben tracy, cbs news, los angeles. >> mitchell: after months the gloom, we actually saw some good economic news this week. gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.5% during the third quarter. that's the best growth in a year. and that combined with this week's european debt agreement helped fuel a surge on wall street that has the stock market on track for its best month in 25 years. for more on the economy, we are joined by mark zandi, chief economist at moody's analytic. good evening to you. >> good evening. >> mitchell: does this ease recession fears and could we see more jobs out there? >> yeah, it does. this was a really good week. it shows that the economy posted a solid gain in the third quarter, and as you pointed out, the europeans struck a pretty good deal with respect to their

debt problems. they haven't solved their problems but they made progress and of course the stock market ran with it. investors had a really good months. recession fears have abated to a significant degree. they're not off the table but they're much less today than they were a fee weeks ago. >> mitchell: mark, could we see more jobs out there potentially? >> i think so. the good news here is businesses have not increased their layoffs. the bad news, of course, is that they're still very cautious and have not picked up their hiring and until they do, unemployment won't begin to move south. but i think if we're able to avoid anything else going wrong over the next couple, three, four months, businesses will regain some confidence and we'll get some more jobs. >> mitchell: mark zandi at moody's analytics, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> mitchell: of course one relatively good week will not erase budget woes. for states and their pension plans the gap between what state workers are promised and what's in the bank to pay them has

widened by more than $1 trillion. pension plans in 41 of the 50 states are seen as under-funded, including california which this week proposed some drastic changes. >> reporter: to close california's pension gap, governor jerry brown called for state employees to pay more and work longer, as much as 12 years longer, before retiring. >> i've tried to do something that's legal, that will save a hell of a lot of money going forward, and i think is fair. >> reporter: brown wants public employees, who now often pay little or nothing toward their pension, to begin paying at least half the cost. >> that is the most immediate and the biggest change that will make our pension plans more solvent. >> reporter: but at state office buildings, workers insists they were already helping california's budget by working for less than they would in private industry. elizabeth dorman is an attorney for the state attorneys make some pretty good money in the private sector. >> a lot more than i do.

>> reporter: she says her salary of just over $100,000 a year is less than half what she could make in private practice. >> i don't have a car. i take the bus to work. i scrimp and save. i cut coupons. >> reporter: in her work, she says, she's done plenty to help the state's budget. >> one of my cases alone last year, we saved the citizens of california a billion dollars a year. >> reporter: under the governor's plan, the retirement age for new public employees would be moved up from 55 to 67. brown is now 73 and could have been collected his state pension years ago. instead, he keeps working. >> i may never collect a pension. ( laughter ) >> reporter: many of the 12 points in governor brown's plan apply only to new public employees and most will need to be approved by legislators and voters. union leaders have already indicated the changes won't come without a fight. john blackstone, cbs news, san francisco. >> mitchell: australia's national airline, qantas, grounded all of its planes today

in a labor dispute, stranding passengers worldwide. it came with the lockout of strike workers. the australian government ordered an emergency arbitration hearing. ahead, is the world ready for its 7 billionth inhabitant?

>> mitchell: the u.n. says the world's population will reach a milestone this monday, 7 billion people. since 1927, our population has soared from 2 billion to 4 billion in 1974 and six billion in 1999. and that's tonight's "weekend journal," a talk with demographer joel cohen of rockefeller university. 7 billion people. >> yes. >> mitchell: what an incredible number.

>> we've doubled from 3 billion in 1960 to 7 billion now, and the world has not gotten any bigger. the continents are the same size. the oceans are the same size. and there's no longer any away to throw stuff away to. >> mitchell: our natural resources, how endangered are we? >> there are a billion people already living with essentially no renewable water supplies. >> mitchell: how many people in this world go without food for a day or two? >> i'm sorry to tell you that that number is higher now than it has been in the last 40 years. it's about 925 million-- in round numbers call it a billion people. >> mitchell: oh, my goodness. >> one person in seven on the planet lives without enough daily calories. >> mitchell: does this create basically two worlds when you have this many folks on the planet? >> yeah, plus one more. one world is the rich world-- that's where you and you are lucky enough to live-- and it's

maybe a billion, a billion and a half people, with high incomes, long life expectancy, tremendous consumption per person. then there's the poor world, that's the second world. and that's a billion, a billion and a half people, of desperate poverty. they have shorter life expectancy. they have higher disease rates. they don't have enough water to drink and wash. they don't have enough food. in between those two extremes is a world middle class. it's the richer people in china, it's the richer people in india. but in india, 76%, three out of four people in india, are living on less than $2 a day. and in china, it's about 36%, one out of three. >> mitchell: and we'll be back.

>> mitchell: the british government has announced the biggest change in the way the country chooses its monarch in almost 1200 years, and it means the british will be singing "god save the queen" rather than king, a lot more frequently in the centuries to come. mark phillips has more. >> reporter: the queen was in australia when the bombshell hit that in the future, there will be more queens like her and fewer kings like her father, george vi, and all the others that came before him. because starting with alfred the great in the year 849 and scrolling all the way down to the present, there's been one rule as to who became the

monarch-- male primagenture, it's called. boys first to you and me. so elizabeth became monarch almost by accident, there being no available male heirs, even younger ones. now british prime minister david cameron has announced that future modern monarchs will be first come, first crowned, whether it's a boy or a girl. starting with prince william and cathryn, duchess of cambridge. >> if the duke and duchess of cambridge were to have a little girl, that girl would one day be our queen. >> reporter: there have been far fewer queens over the years, but royal writer robert hardman says they often had a greater impact. >> any nation liking the idea of having a mother figure, as well as-- we've got a lot of heroes in our past but it's quite nice to have someone who softens the edges. >> reporter: the queen's speech in australia had a fitting theme. >> the theme this year is women as agents of change. >> reporter: now, more than ever. mark phillips, cbs news, london. >> mitchell: back home, in new york harbor, america's grand lady, the statue of liberty, closed for a year of

renovations today but not before it marked a milestone. yesterday, more than 100 brapped new citizens took the oath, and last night there were fireworks to celebrate exactly 125 years since the statue was dedicated. lucky youngsters from d.c. area boys and girls clubs braved the elements today to visit the white house for an early halloween. president obama and the first lady handed out cookies and candy to the trick-or-treaters. youngsters from military families had a party just for them.

>> mitchell: and finally this saturday evening, that dull roar you hear from the direction of st. louis is the sound of cardinals fans still celebrating last night's world series victory. mark strassmann has the story of the redbirds' renaissance. >> in the air to left well hit! >> reporter: one last fly ball became the season's final out and the spirit of st. louis was

pandemonium. >> the cardinals are world champs. >> reporter: what a world series. the comeback cardinals are baseball's improbable team led by david freese, the world series mvp. >> what's going through your mind? >> i don't know, relief, joy. i'm exhausted. i'm just so happy for everybody that-- that's a part of this. >> runners go. >> reporter: freese's two-run double in the first inning tied the game and the texas rangers were in trouble again. the night before, freese's ninth inning two-run triple pushed game six into extra innings and his walk-off home run in the 11th sent anguish deep in the heart of texas. >> if there is one thing that happened in this world series that i'll look back on is being so close, just having one pitch to be made and one out to be gotten, and it could have been a different story. >> reporter: fans on both things could agree on one thing-- this was a world series for the ages with dramatic heroics and memorable bloopers and for the

cardinals their second championship in the last five years. commissioner, have you ever seen a series like this before? >> no, i've seen a lot of great world series but this is a classic. this was really a classic in every way. >> reporter: the cardinals' comeback was a classic. back in august they fell ten and a half games out of first place and looked certain to miss the postseason david freese and his teammates eventually won. >> this is what it's all about. these fans are incredible. >> reporter: like this emotional fan, lynn freese, the mother of the homegrown kid who became world series m.v.p. what's going through your mind as you're looking at him and all this. >> i love him. i'm very happy for him, the organization, the team. everything. it's just awesome. it's just wonderful. >> reporter: proud mama. >> yeah, i want to go see him. >> reporter: go ahead. >> i want to go him. >> reporter: she didn't have to. he came to her. one of those moments a son wants to celebrate with his mother. mark strassmann, cbs news, st. louis. >> mitchell: and that is the cbs evening news.

i'm russ mitchell at the cbs broadcast center in new york. good night. what they call - police brutality against the occupiers. the rally right now in oakland. and the other protest planned for tonight. "...he just started yelling shark, shark shark" at this hour, the rally in oakland right now against the occupier, and the other protests planned for tonight. >> starting yelling shark, shark, shark. >> a surfer bitten and brought to a bay area hospital. the great white attack off the northern california coast. there might be outside groups coming in causing problems. >> at the funeral for a hell's angel. police, mourners and peaceful four. four.